Headless Chickens

I am pleased to report the Migration and Amendment Bill 2006 I commented on in the last post received a frosty reception from the Senate Committee who concluded that in its current state it was unfair, undemocratic and violated human rights.

At least 2 Government back benchers signalled their intention to “cross the floor” and vote against the provisions of the Bill with the Opposition Parties in Federal Parliament. By all accounts it’s a Bill which will be defeated. It’s also worth mentioning the reason for the legislation, arising as an intended appeasement to Indonesia for the recent action in granting asylum in Australia. to a group of Papuans. The Indonesian Government withdrew its Ambassador and was exceedingly displeased with Australia’s actions in recognising the Papuans as refugees. .

The heading for this post brought to mind my Father beheading a chicken to be eaten, by chopping off its head. But on rare occasions the hapless headless chicken ran around the back yard briefly in an involuntary action.
And so it reminds me of the current state of play of politics in Australia. Given there are some good things going on in Government but there has largely been a void of genuine policy initiatives, for quite some time. For policy to work well I believe it must have as its roots prescribed community values. Values need to be reflective of ethics that provide such things as equal opportunity, minimum heath care, rewarding working conditions, universal education opportunities to all, care for our environment, human rights and freedoms of expression. The effectiveness of policy is to measure its implementation and effect against theses core values. This is not rocket science, nor should it be, but it’s a far cry from the attempted knee jerk reactions to governance responding just to opinion polls on the run and around elections time.

A good example recently was the proposed 2 billion dollar float of the Snowy Mountain Scheme. After a public outcry the Commonwealth reversed its decision to sell its stake, only weeks after our Prime Minister was espousing its virtues.The absence of serious policy initiatives remands me of those hapless chooks.